The African National Congress (ANC) in the Eastern Cape on Friday congratulated it’s ally, the South African Students Congress (SASCO) on its victory during the Student Representative Council (SRC) elections that were held on Wednesday at the Nelson Mandela University.

Combined, there are 45 seats in the Nelson Mandela University SRC. From this 45, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) Student Command won one seat; while the Democratic Alliance Student Organisation (DASO) won three seats and SASCO retained leadership of the SRC with a majority 41 seats.

“This victory confirms that the students still have confidence in SASCO as the only reliable instrument to fight for free tertiary education,” said Gift Ngqondi, ANC Eastern Cape Head of Communications.

“The results sends an unequivocal message that students remain unwavering in their support for the Mass Democratic Movement and continue to have confidence in the PYA and SASCO in particular to deliver on their very vocally expressed aspirations.

“We wish to congratulate specifically the newly elected President, and assure him and his leadership of our unwavering support in the struggle for education transformation. SASCO must redouble their efforts to service the student population, remain grounded in their struggles and lead from the front in all matters affecting students.”

Ngqondi added that it is SASCO’s responsibility to unite the students and continue from where the outgoing SRC has left.

“It is in our interest to see our university entrenched as an institution of academic excellence through a working relationship between the academia and students.”

"This is only one of various examples of reckless and wasteful expenditure SASCO has incurred with the Student Representative Council (SRC) budget of more than R4.1 million," said former NMU President, Hlomela Bucwa MP, who is now DASO Eastern Cape Constituency Leader.

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